There's something about this picture that makes it look Photoshopped. I think it's the wild, staring eye of the pigeon that makes it looks like it's about to attack me. I assure you that the picture's quite genuine, though, grabbed this afternoon in St James' Park.
It was one of those sunny afternoons in London that make you remember exactly what it is that tourists see in the city. The park is one of those places that native Londoners have all but abandoned to visitors. It's our loss. My half hour in the park, wandering from one meeting to the next, helped unwind me no end in the middle of a stressfull day. I watched a mother duck take care of her little ones, who bobbed and pecked around her in an unconcerned way as another duck started getting aggressive. I watched policemen wander by, their now commonplace bullet-proof vests open, making them look uncannily like bulky waistcoats. I watched the occasional member of the civil service hurying from meeting to meeting, trailing wisps of governmental conversation in their wake.
A journalist could learn much in a couple of hours in the park.
To those interested in the recent mass killing of pigeons by Torrance Animal Control...
I just spoke with the pigeon man on the phone...
He thinks there may be seven or more pigeons stranded in his house in the Redondo Beach area. If they were not found and murdered yesterday, they will die without food and water. I know it sounds crazy because everyone thinks animal control got them all. But he thinks five may be in the shower and two baby birds may be on top of some boxes near the bathroom and closet. Plus there may be some loose ones in the house that didn't get caught, which would explain why they weren't found.
Our thoughts are to try to get an attorney to get a court order to allow him to return to get the birds.
I checked his address in Redondo Beach and it is definitely his home (he owns it; he is not a tenant) and yet they will not let him go back in, even to retrieve his personal belongings. The authorities even boarded the windows and padlocked the door. Hopefully, we can get a court order to save the few pigeons he feels may be alive. Maybe we can brainstorm on how to save these helpless creatures.
hej u are very correct,i was agueing with my wife what we saw this afternoon,i told her it was a turtle dove and when we got home i told her it had a yellow beak but she saw only the red legs,blue head like a duck and brownish grey body but this foto has cleared the whole arguement,by the way i live in sweden